Shifting Melbourne Metro rail tunnel west a 'catastrophe': Doyle

Adam Carey and Jason Dowling

The proposed Melbourne Metro rail tunnel will still deliver passengers into the city centre, despite the Napthine government's recent decision to scrap plans to tunnel beneath Swanston Street.

It was revealed this week that the government is considering realigning the $9-11 billion rail tunnel so that it runs through Fishermans Bend south-west of the CBD, radically rewriting the script for Victoria's biggest public transport project.

Melbourne's lord mayor Robert Doyle said shifting Melbourne Metro west would be a "100-year catastrophe for the city" and urged the state government to recommit to the route that was originally proposed.

"The Berlin Wall was a 30-year mistake but not building Metro One in the original way it was designed would be a 100-year catastrophe for our city," Cr Doyle told Jon Faine on 774 ABC on Wednesday.

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"We need that underground station [in Parkville] as part of Metro One right in the heart of where our new cancer centre will be, our research precinct, the University of Melbourne, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Royal Women's Hospital, it's just crucial that we service that with a large underground rail station," he said.

The original Melbourne Metro alignment ran from South Kensington to South Yarra via the city centre, with stations at Arden in North Melbourne, Parkville, CBD North next to Melbourne Central, CBD South next to Flinders Street station and Domain on St Kilda Road.

It was first proposed as part of Sir Rod Eddington's 2008 east-west transport needs report, which also proposed building the east-west link road.

It is understood the new proposed alignment would skip Parkville's university and hospitals precinct in favour of a pathway through the city's west.

"The Metro rail capacity project aims to add capacity on the network by building new rail lines that bring people to the city," a Napthine government spokeswoman said.

"Significant planning work has revealed that the original alignment for Metro rail would cause significant disruption to Swanston Street, Melbourne's busiest tram route, under both the cut and cover and the deeper alignment options.

"Other options are now being looked at to minimise this disruption as well as take into consideration the CBD's expansion to the west, such as potentially including Fishermans Bend."

Fishermans Bend is the site for a proposed new suburb as part of a huge urban renewal project being pursued by the Napthine government, predicted to house 80,000 residents and 40,000 jobs within 50 years.

Estimated at $9-11 billion, Melbourne Metro was judged as ready to proceed by Infrastructure Australia, the federal advisory body on infrastructure spending.

The Napthine government has spent $49.5 million on planning for the project, which Premier Denis Napthine said on Monday had led to its decision to scrap plans to tunnel under Swanston Street, to avoid two years of severe disruption in the city.

But Cr Doyle said the benefits of Metro rail justified any short-term pain.

"Even if they said there was no other way to do it I'd say, terrible for those businesses along Swanston Street and it might be hugely disruptive, but let's not toss it all out. That was the concept Infrastructure Australia said will drive the economy of the city."

Roz Hansen, the planning expert chosen by the state government to develop a 40-year blueprint for Melbourne, said the government should stop delaying and get on with building a new rail runnel under the CBD.

"The city desperately needs it," Professor Hansen said.

"The problem is the congestion in the City Loop will not be solved until Metro rail is built. They should do it now, it is the transport priority. We are trying to get people on to public transport and out of cars."

121 comments

Here is a suggestion , why not employ the Australian guy who is currently overseeing the upgrade of London's underground , to oversee this one , if London's underground , a system far more complex then that which exists here can be upgraded , what exactly is the problem with Melbourne's system ?

Commenter

Hobbyfarmer178

Location

Yarragon

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 12:53PM

Robert Doyle has the right idea and I agree with his support for the proposed alignment.

Napthine is just not up to the job as premier and is a puppet for the greedy road lobbyists. They're pulling his strings and he just does not have the guts or leadership to stand up to them. He will go down as our worst premier for scuttling the most important public infrastructure project, the Metro Rail Tunnel. All users of public transport should vote him out of office at the next election.

Infrastructure Australia said that the rail tunnel was ready to start years ago but this government has caved in to greedy vested interests, such as the RACV, the trucking magnates and the toll road operators.

Commenter

Rail Now

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 2:16PM

Excellent point. I do not understand why Australia has to be this way, other countries/cities seem to get things done better have a better system, why can't we adopt it. Same goes for myki and building it from scratch, the oyster in London seems a good working system but we couldn't adopt it I'm sure it would have been so much cheaper in aquiring software licenses.

Commenter

Angel

Location

Melb

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 2:47PM

What is the problem with Melbourne's system, asks Hobbyfarmer 178. Simple..Victorian Australian politicians. They just love reinventing the wheel, even though each time they do it comes out square. Look at Myki and cry for a system that could have been bought off-the-shelf for so much less and worked! We know they are going to get it wrong, they always do because they believe that, once in Parliament, they are infallible.....probably because they are given a little something to keep them quiet until the common sense part of their brains is removed when they are being sworn in for the first time. Ho hum....and so it goes on....they are still searching for the horse hitching rails in Spring Street, you know......

Commenter

Paul

Location

Chirnside Park

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 2:48PM

Agree Hobbyfarmer!! Pathetic excuses. We need more PT, its the only way forward. Has anyone been to Perth lately, it is unbelieveably noisy and roads are choked...poor planning and infrastructure. Melbourne is a beautiful city with great infrastructure that is now in need of updating and extension. We need a gutsy government who will do it.

Commenter

ann3207

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 3:52PM

@RailNow, I agree Premier Napthine is not up to the task, Anyone who remembers the Undergorund loop being built will remember Spring Street and Lonsdale Street being open cut then filled in. It was done in sections. Swanston Street is largely a mall and nobody is going to miss that abysmal excuse for a street being disrupted. Trams run Flinders, Collins, Bourke, Elizabeth.They can divert the Swanston st trams or simply terminate them each end of the works. Walk 5 mins. Build steel plates for access across the cut. Remember it's a Pedestrian Mall? Hello? Nothing is going to be disrupted. Not that hard.

Commenter

Looks like Daniel Andrews is home and hosed

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 6:15PM

It was revealed this week that the government is considering realigning the $9-11 billion rail tunnel so that it runs through Fishermans Bend south-west of the CBD, radically rewriting the script for Victoria's biggest public transport project.---in other words, lets just scrap the whole thing for good, and announce in its place another 'study' to buy a few years to come up with the next excuse. as far as stalling this is a biggie - a fundamental rewriting of the whole project from the concept up. should buy another 5 years of inaction i reckon. or as the wise Sir Humphrey Appleby said, the 'appearance of activity, but no actual accomplishment.'

Commenter

cos1

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 7:17PM

The CBD in terms of employment, retail and service provisions, the Educational Precinct of Melbourne University and RMIT plus the associated Health Precincts and the core Cultural precinct will all benefit from rail capacity increase under Swanston Street. The accommodation and employment planned for, and agreed to by the MCC at Southbank and along St Kilda Road significantly exceeds the proposed 70,000 residents and 40,000 jobs at Fishermans Bend.However the profit margins for developers in the Fishermans Bend precinct are probably more.Wider net community benefit, which are a different set of issues, values and expectations will better served with rail under Swanston. The decision to use the Swanston link into the existing network will serve more of the transport needs of the whole Melbourne population than a rail link with tunnels under the Yarra and Maribyrnong serving Stations at Fishermans Bend. Non-political advocacy interests such as Councillors, PTUA, TCPA and others should be demanding full tabling of the economic and social capital impact analysis of alternative routes. The lack of information in the public domain justifying 6-8 billion dollars of investment in the single solution for handling East West road traffic should not be repeated for another investment of a similar amount. With the current employment climate change underway, route choice needs to have man years of employment factored in as well.

Commenter

Oz

Location

Princes Hill

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 8:13PM

So firstly they want to build the east-west link road tunnel before the metro rail tunnel. Now they want to build the rail tunnel, except curiously miss the areas of greatest need in order to service Fisherman's bend?! I'm sure this critical billion dollar decision so important for the future of our fair city wasn't influence by the developer mates of Napthine-Baillieu the new land at Fishermman's bend was sold to. These developers are desperate to build quickly and a new link would support prices before the huge volume of apartments causes a glut. To skip having a link for what is the future of the city (the medical research hub), which is already there, in order to give access to swath of 'future' urban development financed by zero effective interest rates, is stupidity of the highest order.

Commenter

Vested Interest Vandalism

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 19, 2014, 8:22PM

Okay so they want to build a new platform 6 at melbourne central? I think platform 3 and 4 would be deeper at parliament station than the new platform 5 and 6 at melbourne central. Also building a line past fishermans bend will mean people will change trains at footscray and south yarra and get off in the loop being the walking distance would be shorter from the loop than fishermans bend, you don't have to the a genius to work that one out. You will have the same problems.